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Trip 1 (part 1) - Decent of Doom. With the Kerbin Sorta-Circumnavigation completed, Bob felt like he still had things he needed to accomplish on Kerbin, before heading off for other planets. So to help Bob resolve that (and pull in those big tourism funds) he's been set up in the travel business, taking tourists on guided tours of far flung parts of Kerbin. For this venture new equipment was needed. No puttering around in a boat at 30-40m/s, when a plane will get you places a lot quicker. The new bird, named Flaming Flamingo (of Flam Flam to its friends) took to the skies with Val at the controls and Ribrick Kerman, a paying passenger, sitting next to her. Housed in the belly of the aircraft was a rover, in which sat Bob and Katsen Kerman, the other tourist, in search of distant adventure. Takeoff of the the Flaming Flamingo is a little hairy, as it needs to get up to about 100m/s to get into the air, but starts to veer off course at about 60. So after a wiggly line down the runway, it made this rather unorthodox route into the air. On it's next trip the rear landing gear might get a little adjustment to try and get off the ground faster. But once in the air, Flam Flam is a joy to fly and was soon banked round to give the tourists a fine view of the KSC as it headed West. Well Ribrick had a fine view from the cockput, but from the rover, all Katsen could see was the interior of the cargo bay. Well occasionally she could see the exterior of the rover flapping wildly around while the interior stayed motionless. She was a little concerned about this, but Bob assured her it was nothing to worry about. "Happens all the time". From the cockpit Ribrick got a fine view of the mountains to the West of the KSC, nicknamed The Shortstop. So named because if your de-orbiting spacecraft comes in short for a landing at the KSC, that's where you're gonna stop. Flam Flam headed out over the sea with about half a load of fuel onboard. It wasn't fully fuelled before departure, as putting fuel in that big rear tank puts the CoM way too far back for a stable aircraft. But at least that thing gives the plane a shapely rear end. What's that up ahead, must be the desert coast. Good thing, because that sandy realm is the destination the fleshy payload that's paying for this trip, stumped up the cash for. Val's pretty excited, she's really enjoying being at the controls of something airbourne again. The landing strip at the Dessert Airfield is in sight and Val lines up perfectly for a landing on it. Flam Flam has great handing characteristic for a landing, it can come in really slow on those big wings, almost feels like it's hovering. Once on the ground Val pulled the plane round to the pilot's club. Ribrick is a real plane buff and is looking forward to chilling out in there while Katsen heads off in the rover. Well... here is that rover, a much upgraded version of the one which Bob took up many mountains in the K.S.C. It dangles from the end of a telecoping piston, which it undocks from.. ... before heading off on its own travels. This new rover (Bob likes to call it The Bear, but it's not official) is a lot heavier than the he was used to driving. Fortunately with an extra 4 wheels, it's got the grunt to move it. So bob and Katsen left Flam Flam and the Dessert Airfield behind and headed South into the desert mountains. After the smooth ride to the edge of the mountains, Bob took the rover up it's first proper slopes, nothing taxing though and well within the vehicle's capabilities. Bob decided to take Katsen over to the West side of the mountain range (well he got lost and ended up there) to show her the vast dazzling expanse that it Dwight Sands. The area is named after the famed explorer Dwight Kerman, who lost three fingers while exploring it, when his snack supplies ran out. It is now home to the Dwight Sands Test Grounds, the one place on Kerbin that you can test anything, even really smelly things. Something really nasty must have been tested recently, as both Bob and Katsen can't miss the wiff of something unpleasant as they stand on top of the rover. To escape the pong, the pair quickly headed back inside and Bob deployed the array of solar panels. The rover has a capacity of 4900 units, way more than the piddling 300 of his previous ride. With batteries filled, the pair headed off into the mountains and away from Dwight Sands. There was not real mountain climbing planned for this trip (no real mountains here anyway... just big sandy rock piles), but a lot of the time travelling to their ultimate destination they're up above 2km. Bob feels pretty stoked to be out rovering once more. After some more trundling through the desert mountains, those batteries need feeding again. 4900 units is a lot, but when there's 10 hungry wheels to feed, the rover is going to need another refill before getting to their destination. As the going is getting steeper and therefore slower, Bob decided to deploy the rear solar panels, as the speeds they will be going at won't put them in danger of turning into confetti. Might be time to bring them back in though, as that long downwards slope is going to give them some serious speed. Katsen was almost suspiciously calm durring the journey. After all the funds she spent on her trip you'd think she'd be more excited. The going got decidedly angular at this point in the trip. Bob suggest that there must be some kind of chrystals buried here... real big ones. After those spiky little peaks, Bob had the fun of throwing the rover off the top of ridges, into steep descents, as they closed in on their destination. The great thing about having those extra wheels is all that extra traction allows the rover park motionless on pretty steep inclines. In Bob's old rover they would have been slowing sliding downhill, which is not what you want if you're trying to recharge at the time. One steep drop was puntuate by a ramp that put the rover into the air... high into the air. Fortunately the rover and all inside survived this. Ooo look... more skateboard park type environment for Bob to throw the rover into. Finally their destination is in sight. It might be one of the most visited destinations on Kerbin (I think there's even a gift shop round here somewhere) but it's katsen's first time, so she must be pretty excited to be he... ... not exactly excited, mildly curious perhaps. Well here we are at the famous Tully Temple, named after its equally famous discoverer, Tully Kerman. Another kerbal with the incorrect number of digits (toes this time) due to a snack deficiency related crisis. In Part Two, Bob and Katsen do stuff at the temple, then return home. For all that excitement, join us next time on Bob's Travels.